KiCad can handle bezier curves in footprints but not plot them

[eelik]

KiCad can read and handle bezier curves but they are silently ignored when plotting. See https://forum.kicad.info/t/missing-lines-in-fsilk-layer-in-gerber-file/19697 for a problem it creates. Implementing plotting is of course the only tenable long term solution for 6.0, but in 5.1 it could be reasonable to give some kind of warning (if plotting is not to be implemented because it would be a new feature).

Both 5.1.5rc1 and 5.99 are affected.

Application: KiCad
Version: (5.99.0-293-g42daf172f), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.1.1) nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    Build date: Nov 4 2019 22:08:10
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.71.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.66.0
    Compiler: GCC 9.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

Please attach a sample file to the bug report that exhibits this issue. When you say KiCad doesn't support bezier curves, do you mean the the board editor or the schematic editor or both?

[eelik (eelik)]

Sorry for ambiguousness, I didn't think about eeschema at all, and didn't remember that the board file and footprint files might have difference. Here's one footprint for testing (from the forum thread), although I noticed the problem months ago with (then) 6.0.0rc1 and saw it with any imported bezier curve. I just though this is work in progress and that plotting is just waiting for implementation, but I wouldn't have though it would be a problem for 5.1 users.

If plotting is implemented in 5.99 at least users could plot designs made with 5.1 if necessary. Being not able to plot the curves at all may be frustrating if KiCad has accepted the footprints.

[David Pearce (halzia)]

Referenced on the forum before in 2016
https://forum.kicad.info/t/bezier-curves-missing/4137/6

To me the problem is that 5.1.x renders the footprint correctly in Pcbnew, but silently fails to plot to Gerber.
At least a warning would be helpful

[eelik (eelik)]

(The fix is in the latest nightly build.) I can confirm it works now with the example coil footprint and other parts from the project in the forum thread.

[David Pearce (halzia)]

The 5.1.x Jenkins-454 build is working fine with the Gerber plotting now

[Ian McInerney (imcinerney)]

Changing to the 5.1.5 milestone since this has been backported to it already.